Turnovers spell major trouble for young Cougars
By Mike Hoffman Contributing sportswriter

The Carroll Cougars started Friday night's game against Clinton Central by taking the kickoff and marching down the field. They put together a 12-play drive, capped by Ben Bennington's 3-yard TD run. Skylar Bagwell's kick was good. The drive went 86 yards - the Cougars were looking good.

Little did the team know, that was all the glory that Carroll would see in this game.

The bottom fell out for the Cougars as they had an evening of major trouble, called turnovers. Six turnovers plus 4 interceptions and 2 fumbles - that was the rest of the story.

The Bulldogs kept coming at the Cougars all night. The Cougars couldn't keep up with the Bulldogs on either side of the ball, taking a 58-7 beating. One thing is for sure, when you play Coach Gilbert's Clinton Central Bulldogs, you better be ready to play rough, tuff, physical football. There is no love between the Bulldogs and the Cougars.

The Bulldogs' defensive back Caleb Simmons returned two of his 3 interceptions for TDs. One came in the first quarter on a 55-yard return; the 2-point conversion by Matt Leighty made the score 8-7 Bulldogs.

Simmons's second interception return came in the third quarter on a busted play, for a 2-yard TD return. Simmons also made 11 tackles for the night.

Chase Simmons made it a big night for the Simmons family. Caleb's older brother rushed for 3 touchdowns (16- yd. run; 1-yd. run and a 20-yd. run) for a total of 208 yards. The senior also had two 2- points conversions.

Scott Dunn had 83 yards rushing and 2 TDs. Dunn also played linebacker and put a lot of pressure on the Cougars.

On the defensive side, the Cougars gave over 400 yards rushing on 32 attempts.

The Bulldogs' runners would wait on their blockers and burst open on sweeps or up the middle for good gains, which kept the defense on its toes.

This was a hard loss for the young Cougars. If they get their act together they can win the last two regular season games. As the old cheer goes "you got to fight to win."

Josh Holda led the Cougars (2-5) with 59 yards rushing on 14 carries. He was moving the ball against the dogs before leaving with an injury. On defense, Riley Eller again had 11 tackles to lead the way for the defense.

The Cougars must prepare for their last home regular season game Friday against the Frontier Falcons, who come in at 3-4.

Carroll football is only going to get better. This is a learning year for these kids, who have been through a lot. Let's come out this week and play good football and have fun winning.